Editorial Policy

Capital Health Summit is an unusual mix: one man’s account of having a shoulder replaced, joined to the clinical detail a surgeon would put their name to. This policy explains how those two things are kept separate and then fitted back together, so you can judge for yourself how far to lean on what you read.

The split the site is built on

Every page is drafted by Douglas Prentice, a reverse shoulder replacement patient and the founder here, not a clinician. Anything that touches the medicine is then read by Mr Robert Kessler, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, FRCS (Tr & Orth), before it goes live. His signature covers the parts that carry weight: how a total, a reverse, and a hemiarthroplasty are described and told apart, when an irreparable rotator cuff points to a reverse rather than an anatomic replacement, and the numbers on recovery, implant survival, infection, dislocation, and loosening. Where a page shows a reviewed date, that is the day a surgeon last went over it.

Experience is labelled as experience

The two voices never blur. When a page describes my own armchair nights, my weeks in a sling, or the reach that came back somewhere past the six-month mark, that is one shoulder and one recovery, and it is marked as personal. When a page states what a reverse replacement does, who a hemiarthroplasty suits, or how often infection turns up, that is the reviewed clinical content. What happened to my joint is not a forecast for yours.

Where the numbers come from

Figures on this site are pulled from recognised bodies and peer-reviewed orthopaedic literature, never from clinic marketing. We lean on the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS OrthoInfo), the NHS, the National Joint Registry, the Cleveland Clinic, and the published shoulder-arthroplasty studies beneath them. Where the evidence gives a spread rather than a single answer, we write the spread, for example “around 90% still in place at 10 years”, and we say plainly when the research has not settled a point. A range is never quietly rounded up into a guarantee.

Nobody buys a place here

No surgeon, hospital, implant maker, or agency pays to be mentioned, and none ever will. We run no affiliate links to anyone selling surgery, and the Resources page points only to independent bodies with nothing to book. Where the site later notes that some people travel abroad for a shoulder replacement, that is described as a reality to weigh carefully, not a recommendation.

When we get something wrong

If a page here is inaccurate, out of date, or simply unclear, I want to know. Tell me through the Contact page. Genuine errors of fact are corrected quickly, and where a change is material we update the page and its dates so the correction is visible rather than silent.

What a review is not

None of this makes the site medical advice, and a surgeon reading an article is not the same as a surgeon examining your shoulder. Whether a replacement suits you, which of the three operations fits your joint, and what movement is realistic are questions for a consultation, not a web page. Please read this alongside the Medical Disclaimer.